Responding to rising trade volumes, China has established its second rail link to Europe, connecting the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou with Hamburg, Germany.

The train takes 18 days to reach Hamburg which is twice as fast as maritime transport. It will also effectively save 80 percent of the cost compared with air shipments, and it’s and it’s about $489 cheaper on average compared with road transportation, which is a major incentive for the Eurasian Land Bridge, also dubbed New Silk Road.

The route from Zhengzhou reaches Germany via Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland and is just over 10,000 kilometers. Zhengzhou International Inland Port Development Co Ltd is responsible for cooperating with partner rail companies in each country.

The containers have to be transferred by crane to different rail gauges twice. First comes a change to the Russian style broad gauge line at the Kazakhstan-China border at Alashankou, in northeastern China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The second is a transfer to standard gauge at the Polish-Belarusian border.

Cui Shaoying, director of the Zhengzhou Economy and Technology Development Zone, said the rail freight using the Eurasian land bridge will speed up access to key markets in Europe.

The first freight train had 41 containers, including 11 containers of vehicle parts, industrial yarn, high-end shoes and clothing en route to Hamburg, 29 containers of abrasives headed to Antwerp, Belgium and one container of garments destined for Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The goods are valued at $2.33 million.